THE 1992 CAMPAIGN

THE 1992 CAMPAIGN; Helms Campaign Signs Decree on Racial Postcards

Published: February 28, 1992

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27—
Officials of Senator Jesse Helms's 1990 re-election campaign signed a consent decree on Wednesday to settle a Justice Department complaint that the campaign was involved in a mailing intended to intimidate black voters.

The Justice Department began its investigation after postcards were sent to 125,000 North Carolinans, most of whom were blacks eligible to vote, suggesting to them that they were not eligible and warning that if they went to the polls they could be prosecuted for voter fraud.

Senator Helms, Republican of North Carolina, was opposed in the election by Harvey Gantt, the black former mayor of Charlotte, N.C. The race had been considered close but Mr. Helms won a third term by a comfortable margin, receiving 1,080,208 votes to Mr. Gantt's 974,701.

Helms campaign officials denied that they had been involved in the mailing.

"The so-called civil rights bureaucrats left us no choice but to accept this agreement," said Carter Wrenn, who heads the Congressional Club, Mr. Helms's political organization. "The Helms for Senate Committee made this settlement for one reason: it did not have $250,000 to take the Washington bureaucrats to court."

The Justice Department civil complaint, filed in Federal District Court in Raleigh, N.C., charged Senator Helms's re-election campaign, the North Carolina Republican Party and four campaign-consulting and marketing firms with violating the Voting Rights Act.

The complaint asserted that officials of the Republican Party and the Helms campaign planned the mailing after a poll published by The Charlotte Observer showed Mr. Gantt with a lead of eight percentage points and after state election officials reported a 10.6 percent increase in black voter registration, compared with a 5.3 percent rise in white voter registration.

Federal District Judge James Fox of Wilmington, N.C., a Republican, approved the consent decree today. The Justice Department said it saw no basis for criminal charges against any of the defendants.